When Mrs Sharma found herself locked out of forty-two Foley Feild – yes, that is Feild, not Field – her first instinct was to cry, which was ridiculous because Mrs Sharma rarely cried.

     The last time she had cried was right after her hysterectomy, but that was on purpose.

One day Wang the Third, who had left for the city a year earlier, returned to their town. He asked stay-at-home Yu Li if he wanted to leave and go to work in the capital, adding that by great good fortune he knew of an elevator-operating team that might just be short of one operator.

     ‘What’s an elevator?’ Yu Li asked.